A farce hit the screen today. The employees blocked the boss at the door of the office, and the scene was noisy, "Did you know today that social security would be cut off?", "Take out your savings and pay us social security.". Some employees even swore directly at their boss, and the police came to the scene to maintain order.
Judging from the videos circulating on the Internet, there are two lines of words on the wall that are particularly dazzling——
In the history of China’s smart cars, every Jiyue person’s name will definitely be there.
Jiyue CEO Xia Yiping stood in a cramped corner, and the words above his head were somewhat ironic. The ideals were once full, but overnight, Jiyue was defeated, and the employees who had fought side by side turned against each other.
The all-employee letter released yesterday stated that the company will enter the Entrepreneurship 2.0 stage and has received the understanding and support of shareholders.
But the reality is far from being as good as described. There is internal news that the company's shareholders will no longer invest, and Jiyue will also close its vehicle business this week.
From last night to today, news about Jiyue came like a scourge. Whether it was white-collar workers in the office or live broadcast car sales, they were all denouncing this company.
Layoffs or "disbandment in place"?
It only takes one night to collapse.
Early in the morning on the 12th, there were many hot searches, such as“Jiyue car owners organized a group to return their cars”, “Jiyue employees disbanded on the spot”, “Jiyue employees asked for wages online”, “Jiyue employees will go to work at their own expense”and many other entries.
The day before, the CEO was giving employees blood injections to enter the "2.0 stage of extreme entrepreneurship." The next day, employees received a decisive and cold notice: social security payments were stopped at the same time, employees were forced to resign immediately, and they were left without wages or social security.
In addition to employees, the sad part is also for the prospective car owners who are preparing to take delivery of their cars.Pick up the car in the morning and close in the afternoon.
The incident started two days ago. On the evening of December 10, many bloggers revealed that the third car company in Shanghai to enter the death spiral this year may be about to appear. A new power brand will hold an all-staff meeting this week, and the company will be dissolved on the spot.
At that time, many netizens speculated that it was Jiyue Auto. Prior to this, there was internal news that the company's shareholder Baidu would no longer invest and Jiyue would close its vehicle business this week. Jiyue did not respond.
At noon on December 11, a reminder letter for a debt of 360,000 yuan put Jiyue Automobile at the forefront of the storm.
Before the matter of arrears could be settled, an internal open letter from all employees came out stating that Jiyue had entered the 2.0 stage of entrepreneurship.
Although they tried their best to cover it up in their rhetoric and refute the rumors of "disbanding on the spot", it is not difficult to see that Jiyue Automobile did have quite a problem.
The letter from all employees gave four solutions, insisting on long-term investment in core technologies to maintain leading advantages; strengthening sales and service capacity building to cope with fierce market competition;Merge departments and positions with duplicate functions, reform inefficient internal work processes, and cut projects that cannot improve financial performance in the short term.
Interestingly, this open letter was also picked up by netizens, and it is highly similar to the internal letter released by NIO in 2023...
The implication of the letter from all employees was that Jiyue Automobile would have major layoffs in the future, but they did not expect that the layoffs would come so fast.
Shortly after the all-employee letter was released, Jiyue Automobile’s layoff measures leaked on social platforms.
It’s just a matter of resigning or staying. Resigning does not guarantee the payment of compensation. If you want to stay, there is a high probability that you will receive neither salary nor social security. “Go to work at your own expense"That's why the joke came about.
Because the news was so sudden, many Jiyue Motors store live broadcast rooms were still open as evening approached. Many Jiyue anchors were told that their jobs were gone during the live broadcast, and they broke their guard one after another.
Some female anchors laughed at themselves, saying, "I was here just now pretending to be Crayon Shin-chan and Ziwei's Gerbera." Then she broke down and cried. Some anchors even started to let themselves go and borrowed the Jiyue Automobile live broadcast room.Find a home online.
Even Yang Yueqing, engineering director of the previously reorganized Gaohe Automobile project, used his experience to advise Jiyue Automobile employees in a personal live broadcast. He saidIf you can sign it, sign it as soon as possible, don’t have any illusions, leaving early is not to get steamed buns, but to enter the market earlier than others.
"Leave the field as early as possible. If he could get it, he wouldn't be in this situation today. He must be at the end of his rope."
When the embankment breaks, all kinds of things come out.
As of press time, many employees are still defending their rights.
The latest news is that on the afternoon of December 12, Xia Yiping responded that the company’s account has been frozen.I am not the first person responsible for the company, but we will try our best to solve the social security issue of Beijing employees before 1 a.m. tomorrow, and the social security payment issue of Shanghai employees will be resolved before the 27th. The specific operation still needs to be discussed with the board of directors.
In addition, "I am still actively seeking financing. The company has not shut down or collapsed, and the vehicle warranty and software services will not be interrupted."
Why is this happening?
Compared with the previous explosions of Weimar and Gaohe, Jiyue's fall was a bit sudden.
Jiyue Automobile, formerly known as Jidu, was established in March 2021.A joint venture between Baidu and Geely Holding Group, Baidu provides intelligent solutions, and Geely provides manufacturing and vehicle platforms. At the time, it was regarded as a "super marriage" in the new energy field.
However, due to production qualification issues, Geely and Baidu later established Hangzhou Jiyue Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., with the two parties holding 65% and 35% of the shares respectively.The "Jidu Automobile" brand was renamed "Jiyue Automobile".
It is said that one has skills and the other has experience. The most important thing is that both of them are not short of money. The fate of Jiyue Automobile should never have come to this, but the fact is that even if it is not "disbanded on the spot" now, it is still in a situation of complete paralysis.
Why is this happening? You can get a glimpse of this in the response of Xu Jiye, head of Jiyue Public Relations.
On December 12, Xu Jiye posted a message in his circle of friends, saying why Jiyue was like this because he had no money and needed to find money to survive.
According to internal sources, the reason for the current Jiyue flash crash is thatShareholders withdraw their capital and no longer invest money, the previously promised financing has not yet arrived.
Because of lack of money, Jiyue can be said to be in debt.
First, it was spread that the supplier publicly requested debt collection from Jiyue Automobile, saying that the cooperation fees totaled 360,000 yuan and had not yet been paid after the payment period. During the period, the supplier had been urged many times and still had not received payment. It was hoped that Jiyue Automobile could abide by the contract and complete the payment.
Later, many media companies asked Jiyue Motors to collect debts, and the total cost of undertaking the CEO's live broadcast was 690,000, and some even reached as high as 690,000 yuan.37 million.
From this point of view, many of them are communication and marketing expenses, and the focus is Xia Yiping's live broadcast. Behind this is anxiety about sales.
Jiyue Auto only delivered 2,485 vehicles in November; cumulative deliveries from January to November this yearNearly 14,000 new cars, which is not as good as the one-month sales volume of competing products.
In addition, Jiyue has set its starting point very high in terms of products, and "raises high and strikes high" to position smart car robots, not onlyThe concept is difficult to understand, it is difficult to establish brand recognition, which also results in many of its selling points being too far away from mainstream consumers. Some designs are even designed to stand out, such as the absence of door handles, steering levers, etc.
There is also an inseparable relationship between a company's operating conditions and its CEO.
Xia Yiping wasMobikeThe co-founder and CTO has rich experience in the Internet and automotive industries. He has been in the automotive industry for 6 years and became the head of Fiat Chrysler (FCA) Asia Pacific Intelligent Connected Vehicle Business Unit.
Robin Li once commented on him: "He understands cars, understands the Internet, has entrepreneurial experience, has a technical background, has passion, and has a sense of mission." He was named to take charge of Jidu.
Obviously, Xia Yiping took a detour. As news of Jiyue's suspension spread, a lot of information about Xia Yiping himself was exposed.
Before this, Xia Yiping and Xiaomi Motors also had a lot of "grievances".
Prior to this, Xiaomi released its quarterly financial report and disclosed its automobile business for the first time. Xu Jiye, the head of Jiyue Public Relations, blasted Xiaomi in WeChat Moments as selling cars at a loss as dumping, calling Lei Jun the worst kind of businessman.
This also caused a lot of controversy in the industry, and Xu Jiye was punished by Xia Yiping internally that day.
Xia Yiping once made a public statement, saying that a certain car company is "a pixel-level replica of Porsche and McLaren. Will it be the turn to copy Ferrari next?"
Although he did not mention it by name, many people thought that he was talking about Xiaomi SU7.
Back to today, Xiaomi SU7 has become a phenomenon-level hit, Xiaomi SUV is also ready to go, and these farces staged by Jiyue Automobile are destined to leave a mark in the history of the industry.
Text | Wang Lei
Editor｜Qin Zhangyong